G.W. Bowersock's review, at least, reacquainted me with the Warren Cup.
The small Roman silver cup is an extraordinary object from the early first century AD. It became known to the public in 1999 when the British Museum made its acquisition for 1.8 million pounds. In 2006 the Warren Cup was the object of a special exhibition.The outer surface of the Cup is decorated with two figured scenes in low relief showing each two males in a sexual act. In one, a senior bearded man is copulating with a beardless youth. In the other, the older figure is a beardless youth, his companion a boy. Both scenes exhibit a great degree of shared intimacy.
The British Museum exhibition was associated with the publication of a small monograph, The Warren Cup (Dyfri Williams, the British Museum Press, 2006, 64p), which, as stated on the cover flap,
examines the iconography of the Warren Cup, and sets it in it's social context. It also discusses the cup's modern history, especially the life of the eccentric collector, Edward Perry Warren, from which it takes its name.
It's a lovely little book.
***
By the way, the TLS last week mentions 'en passant' the Gay Icons exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London. It runs until October 18th.
2009.09.27
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